wynterwolf

I got an Ibanez with an Edge III for my second guitar.  Beautiful instrument for the money, but I had tons of problems with the bridge early on.  If I hit that bar, the damn thing was out of tune.  Frustrating.  Additionally, a real pain if you need to set alternate tunings.

One day, I got a hair up my rear and decided that I was going to figure the damn thing out.  Intonation wasn't quite right and I didn't think it would be too hard to set a guitar up right with the proper research.  After all that, I figured out how to set up a guitar properly.

The thing is a real pain to set up, but once it is, it's pretty sweet.  Now, it stays in tune properly no matter how hard I wail on it.  Though, I really only use it to get nice fast vebrato or a dive bomb here and there.  In the end, I would say that a beginner should avoid it until they have a few guitars laying around.  Then maybe get one with it.  The pain in tuning the guitar really makes me avoid it if you only have one guitar.

I'm also intrigued by the tremol-no...

You want cheap Amp and effects?  Use your comptuer and your rocksmith cable.  Ubuntu Studio is free, and you can make a LiveCD/USB so you can use it by just booting to the CD/USB.  Uber cool.

I also have a Mustang amp that I can control and input, but you really only need your Rocksmith cable.

http://i.imgur.com/LyqzxMz.jpg

I'm a guy who believes in completeness.  If I chart a song, I chart all the parts, and add all the 'bonus' to it (DD, sections, etc).  I think approved songs should be as such.  I want my song to be indistinguishable from official DLC, and I believe providing options is a good thing.  It's easy to add DD to a song, and I like the level markers in it.

I've also added non DD bonus arrangements for the DD rage crowd.  Again, I believe in options.

I chart songs I can't play because I want to learn how to play them.  You don't necessarily have to be able to play them to ensure the chart is right.

...and...

As a side note, it's cool to be passionate, but lets keep it civil in here, peeps.  Everyone should be entitled to their own opinion without hostility.  It's getting a little heated and it's easy for things to boil over.

Rock On

My concern is for the less popular songs.  Songs that are hard to play, or are by bands that most people don't listen to.  They'll tend to never get approved because they lack traffic.  This leads to needing testers who are motivated to test these songs.  How does a more obscure song get some recognition?  How does a charter who puts a ton of time into an obscure song get a song approved and get the recognition?

And I don't have answers for it either.  I just like more obscure music and I want to see those songs getting charted too.  Just a thought, really, for consideration.

I've only dabbled in recording, but all that dabbling is in Ubuntu Studio.  Rocksmith cable, mustang amp with usb (so you can get the Mustangs modeled effects into the studio!) and a Yamaha keyboard with USB in for Midi.

It's awesome.  Effects racks, drum kits, audio processors, syths, mixers, recording, real time kernel, and a super awesome patch system for putting it all together.  I'm quite impressed with it.  I find I don't have enough monitors for all the tools that I can pull up.

And a disclaimer:  I'm a Linux zealot, so take it everything I say with a grain of salt.  I might be an elitist bastard and not know it.  Still, you should try it.  Super Awesome DAW.

Though, I wish it was as cool as sneaker mic.  That rules!

It looks like TuxGuitar hasn't been updated since 2009? I still have to give it a try, haven't had the time yet.

 It hasn't been updated, but the feature set of Guitar Pro hasn't changed all that much since GP 4 or 5, I don't think.  It's quite competent, and runs almost everywhere.  Oh, and it's free.  The big down fall is it can't open gpx files.  

...EOF can't properly compete with a program that is designed for creating guitar tablature and nothing else, when you compare some of the really specialized features like the chord creator in Guitar Pro...

 Yeah, I try not to use EOF for editing because TG and GP are so much better at it.  Hats off to you, raynebc, for making the import process so painless. 

This isn't a bad idea.  I like EOF, but I'm not sure it's the best 'charter'.  My workflow for charting songs entails getting a guitar pro file and editing a new track in that file containing my 'chart'.  Whenever I need to update the song, I fix the guitar pro file and then re-import.  Maybe it's a little bass akwards, but editing in Tux Guitar,  I find, is way easier.  (Not to knock on EOF at all, mind you)

Not to say we shouldn't have the functionality in EOF, but maybe a good way to get what you are looking for until the feature is added to EOF.

For us poor people:  Tux Guitar FTW.

... I wish someone would make an intonation fret run on each string as a cdlc so people know the guitar needs a checkup....

It's a cool idea, but in practice, I don't think it would work well enough.  You lose a lot of granularity in note recognition, I think and you really need that granularity to check and set it properly.  Additionally, it's easy enough to go into the tools menu and fret some notes to see how intonation is.   The tools menu meter has decent granularity and so it would be a good place to check your intonation if you don't have a good tuner.

Perhaps a tutorial would be a good idea.

Learning guitar is one of the hardest things I've ever done, and I'm pretty good at things that I 'do'.  I've been playing for about three years now, about an hour a night of practice, sometimes more.

That first year was tough.  I felt the same way, so I sympathize.

My advice is this:  Perfect practice makes perfect.  Go slow and concentrate on not making mistakes.  You are developing muscle memory.  Go slow and perfect, and increase in small increments your speed, making sure you are staying perfect.  Eventually, you will get there.  It's why riff repeater is so awesome.  Good feedback, speed adjustable.  

And work hard.  It won't come without hard work, time, and effort.  The more time you put into it, the faster you will learn.  Petrucci, one of my favorite guitarists, devoted himself to practicing at least six hours a day to get where he is.  This isn't a challenge you measure in months.  It's a lifetime challenge.  Try not to worry about how long it's taking you and just work at it.  You'll get there.

And I agree.  Taking a break can help.

Rock on.

I like all this discussion.  Lots of cool ideas.

But motivation is the key.  Find some way to keep it simple, and reward people for their work.  That means everyone.  Reward charters for their work.  Reward testers for their work, etc.  Maybe it's just community recognition, but that is how you get people to stay motivated to do the kinds of things being discussed here.

And keep it simple.  I like the Github idea, but I'm not sure the files we are working on lend themselves to collaborative efforts.  I say if people want to be collaborative, they should work it out individually with the charters/testers/etc.  As far as recognizing good CDLC, we need to keep it simple.  Over complicate it, and people won't want to use it.

Just my .02.

I consider myself as a beginner and I use these Dunlop Max-Grip picks.  Managed to get to 108% on Blitzkrieg Bop :)

 

http://elderly.com/images/accessories/PK/PK4491-88.jpg

This is exactly what I was talking about.  I had a bunch of these in different thicknesses.  They work great.

I have done Blitzkrieg Bop to 94% my problem is not by hitting the notes correctly, my problem is I lose the grip of the pick so it comes in a wrong position. I hold the pick exactly like they showed in the video on Rocksmith, but I always lose the grip.

This is an experience thing, I think.  I used to have this problem too.  Now, I can't remember when the last time I dropped a pick.  When first starting out, I found some textured picks so they were easier to hold onto.  Now, I'm to the point where I don't think it matters.

Try a textured pick.  The ones I used to use had a very rough patch on either side that was very easy to hang onto.  It might help you out.

Today I kinda figured out why I miss a lot of Chords especially when I palm mute them.

It depends on the strumming. When I play as usual, tight muted and  with a hard strum/attack I miss the notes.

When I loosen the muting a bit the notes are recognized.

I tried out "Sorry your not a winner".  When I could actually hit the chord, it would register fine.  The tail end of that song, I didn't have any problems.  I'm not sure how tight 'tight muted' is, but my palm mutes seemed ok.  Hard palm mute with a floating bridge?  Are you pushing the bridge down and throwing everything sharp?

Another thing I like to do when I'm having a hard time with things registering is to escape out of the song (not riff repeater) and look at the little tone indicator in the lower left hand side.  I'll tweak my tuning there, because sometimes I think rocksmiths tuner gets a little anxious to approve a tune.  I notice it jumps around a bit.  Maybe check that out.  Maybe check those readings (what rocksmith is seeing) vs a real tuner to ensure it's right.  

Anyway, it sounds like you're making headway, which is cool.

Hey,

 

yesterday I found the time to check an adjust intonation etc. on my guitars.

Unfortunately it didn't help out much since I then played "Enter Shikari - Sorry You're not a winner" CDLC.

A bunch of notes isn't recognized an I don't struggle with the song, I would go so far to call it rather easy...and in the end there is a part with a lot of chord strumming where I keep missing almost all of them, with different guitars tested...

Very annoying and I come to the conclusion that it only can be bad syncing or sth. of the CDLC(s). I should easily get over 90% with this song and i ended up with about 75%...

 

It is not that big of a deal cause it is still fun playing along. Nevertheless it would be nice to have the software working properly... :sad:

 

 

Someone here who can eventually play the same CDLC without struggling and tell me their experience?

I'll give it a shot tonight and see how it goes.

I've had this problem.  Here are some thoughts I've worked out on it:

• Fret hand pressure:  I have a constantly reoccurring problem of pressing down on the strings too much.  It causes the notes to go sharp, and then doesn't get read properly by RS.  This is especially prevalent when I'm doing Barre Chords, as I'm trying real hard to get them.  I am constantly telling myself to relax.
• Arpeggiated sequences:  I have an arpeggiated Am sequence in Peruvian Skies that I always seem to miss the high e string on.  I notice that when I have a few strings ringing out, RS has a hard time hearing that high e.  I've been experimenting with fret hand muting my notes when I get to that high e to give RS a 'cleaner' tone to listen to.  I wonder if it gets washed out.
• Full strums:  A lot of times, I'll miss a power chord and not understand why.  When I think about my strums, and get a full motion in, I am pretty accurate.  When I get fast, I tend to miss a string or muddy it up, or get strings I shouldn't because I'm failing to mute a string or whatever.
• Volume Pot:  Sometimes, I'll adjust my volume pot down a bit so I can hear the song better, and forget about it.  Some tones don't have as much amplification as others, and so it will cause RS to not register a note.  So I'm always checking that thing to make sure it's all the way up.

I was at a point where I blamed RS, but I've moved on.  I'm not sure it's blameless, but I do think I'm the problem more often then not.  I agree with checking intonation and string action as well, as a well set up guitar is important.  I'm not saying any of these are your problems, but things to think about, and maybe they'll help others who come here having problems.  I'm quite new to playing guitar, so I tend to think I'm the problem.

Cheers!